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If you are like me, you get a lot of email. Perhaps, more email than you can handle. Email is something that used to weigh me down and I found myself putting it off. In my mind I would say, "Jim, check your email."
To which I would reply, "No time Jim, too busy for that although I know I need to."
Can you guess the end result? If not, let me tell you. At the end of the day (or several days) I have an avalanche of scanned over emails to reply to and as a result, some really important emails fall through the cracks. (Ouch! I hate that.)
Well, fortunately, that rarely happens anymore because I mastered a neato filtering trick inside Gmail. In other words, when I get an important email, I ask Gmail to label it with a big bright color so I know its something I should pay attention to sooner rather than later.
Let me show you what I mean in 6 simple steps.
Step 1: Open the email.
(Okay, let me back up a bit and say that the real step 1 is to get a Gmail account. What am I showing you only works in Gmail. Cool? )
Step 2:
Click the "Create a filter" to the right of the "Search the Web" button.
Step 3:
I add the sender's email to the "from" slot and use the same subject line from the original email. Once that's done, I click the "Next Step" button.
Step 4:
I check the "Star it" box and the "Apply the label" box.
To the right of the "Apply the label" box is a drop down revealing labels I have already created (they are blurred out) and the option to create a "New label." I click the "New label" link in the drop down menu.
Step 5:
A "New Label" window opens giving me the option to name the new label I am setting up. I decide to call it "Job Alerts."
Step 6:
Now that the label is created, I click the "create filter" button, and I am returned back to my email.
Now, when I get a new email from that sender, it will automatically be starred and labeled "Job Alerts."
Oh! I almost forgot. Now that the label is set up, I have the option of changing its color so that it will stand out in my inbox.
Bottom Line
A personal, job-search email account provides you with privacy (from current employers and also family members), and, as you can see, Gmail offers some handy tools that help you organize your email to help you manage your job search, too.
© Copyright Jim Stroud, 2011. Used with permission.
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About This Author:
Jim Stroud produces The Jim Stroud Show (audio and video), an informative and comedic video series for jobseekers. He also produces The Hidden Job Report, a weekly newsletter revealing unadvertised jobs around the world, and The Recruiters Lounge, an award-winning HR blog. When Jim Stroud is not online, he suffers severe withdrawal pains that can only be soothed with chocolate chip cookies and family time. Follow @jimstroud on Twitter to connect with him in real time.
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